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Published: December 28th 2016
Fantastic Kakku
The reflecting poolAfter being woken up by that bloody cockerel again we were up and ready for the day trip to Kakku. We had asked about doing a shared trip but were told there wouldn't be enough room in the car, oh well it's just us again. We drove up into the hills and arrived at Taunggyi, a large town which is spread over a plateau on the hill top. Here we had to stop and pay the fee to visit the site of Kakku and the fee for the obligatory Pa O guide who then joined us in the car.
Our guide was a lovely lad called Tun Tun, he was dressed in traditional Pa O clothing complete with a colourful scarf tied round his head and is a 4th year (final year) university student. He is studying English Literature and communication skills, he told us his favourite poets are Wordsworth and Oscar Wilde no less. He is 20 and has 3 older sisters And comes fom a small traditional Pa O village near Kakku and wants to be a tour guide full time.
As we drove along he explained about all the various things we saw, which crops were
grown etc. we reached the site of the famous Taunggyi Balloon Festival, which is a huge area where every year for 10 days people come from all over to see the amazing huge balloons, watch the fireworks and generally have a but of a knees up. He showed us some photos of the last one, with fireworks being set off from the balloons and it looked amazing, if a tad scary!
We had a quick stop off at the Territories football pitch where a big competition was taking place, but it was half time so didn't see a lot. Then it was on through more beautiful scenery, past farms and fields of garlic, sunflowers, advocado trees and groves of bamboo. Eventually due to roadworks we had to take a detour and once again the dust was in full force, unlike near Mandalay where the trees were all white, here they were all red and once again I found it hard to imagine how people could live and work in it. No wonder they all hawk and spit all the time!
From the top of the hill we got our first glimpse of the site of Kakku. This is
one of Asia's largest ancient monuments. There are 2,756 stupas dating back to the 12th century and it is quite a sight! Kakku is in the Pa O ethnic minority territory (hence the Pa O guide) and is very sacred to them. Big festivals are held here also.
The stupas were magnificent, row after row of them, lots topped with high crowns of bells which were tinkling in the breeze- lovely.
The site was built upon land originally inhabited by wild pigs, which is where the name is derived from. Near the centre in it's own special case is the holy pig, said to protect the site. People come and make offerings of money to it.
When we visited a lot of restoration work was taking place as a tornado had hit the site, damaging stupas, knocking over or off the crowns and destroying the top of the pagoda. The local village was also hit.
Now that was the first time in living memory that a tornado had struck here and it only hit those two places. As it happens the monks ofthe pagoda had forbidden anyone to eat pig as they are viewed as sacred,
but just before the tornado hit the local villagers had defied this by killing and eating a wild pig. Is this just coincidence or is it something else.............?
The Pa O believe they are descended from the Mother Dragon and the ladies' traditional dress reflects this and is made up of 5 different layers to represent the dragons skin and they wear an elaborately folded scarf head dresses. The men wear bright turban head bands and carry brightly coloured woven bags. We saw the two original figures on one of the stupas.
The site was fascinating and we were shown lots of interesting details we would have otherwise missed by not having a guide, including the reflecting pool which was tucked away in one of the corners, marvellous.
For lunch I had the local traditional brown bean soup, which tasted a lot better than it sounds and Howard had french fries ha ha.
On the way back we stopped at one of the Pa O villages, we passed one of the elders who I said hello to, he then welcomed us and told us to please look round, so we did. We saw traditional bamboo thatch
houses on stilts, which apparently last about 7 years and we saw stone built ones clearly owned by the richer villagers. Everyone had their own gardens where they grow their own veg and they all had little thatch out house loos.
The whole village as really clean, most unusual in Burma and Tun Tun explained that this was due to the Head Man as he understood about environmental protection and the dangers of plastic, all credit to him and let's hope this catches on in the rest of the country. Lastly we saw the Village Library building, Tun Tun was delighted to hear I worked in libraries and told me about his university which collects newspapers and magazines and then gives them to this library who then lend them out to the villagers.
We had some interesting political conversations with this lad about Burma and the USA, he wanted to know what we thought about Burma's future and told us how he saw things developing. He described how excited everyone was when The Lady was elected. He asked lots of questions about our culture and views on marriage and living together and talked very openly about the Pa
Kakku
The 3 styles of stupa O traditions and how things may change. It was with some regret that we said goodbye to him once we got back to Taunggyi. He asked us to let people know about his region and Kakku so more people would come and visit, so that's what I am doing now!
We had a great day, I highly recommend doing this trip, it is a 2 1/2 hour drive from Nyaung Shwe but really worth doing, please go!!
And on a more mundane note, we are now staying at the Golden Dream Hotel, tea was back at the original Indian. I was sat facing the doorway to the kitchen, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye but dismissed it, until a rat popped out from next to the big yellow cooking oil container on the floor. Ah well as Howard says, what do you expect when it's 2 meals, a stack of parathas, beer and fresh pineapple juice, all for less than a tenner?
Trip on Inle Lake booked for tomorrow, let's hope my guts hold out!
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